Flanders suspends exports to Russia for 200 million euros

The Flemish Government has suspended 113 export licences to Russia and 12 licences ​ to Belarus for a total amount of 200,000 euros. This is a consequence of the economic sanctions against both countries, following the war in Ukraine. 

The economic sanctions make it impossible to export many products to Russia and Belarus, insofar as there are still companies that want to do business there. A series of current licences for the export of dual-use goods - with both military and civilian applications - to the two countries was also frozen. This already happened with the first ​
​sanctions at the end of February, the Belgian newspaper De Tijd reported on Tuesday. 

In Flanders, Minister-President Jan Jambon (N-VA), who is also the Flemish Minister of Foreign Affairs, took the decision for the immediate suspension of the licences. No suspension was needed for arms, military equipment and dual-use goods with a military end-use. Those exports to Russia have been halted since the 2014 sanctions following the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by the Moscow regime.

The new measures have created a lot of extra work for the strategic goods control department, which can inspect goods that do not require a licence if they can be used for military purposes. Furthermore, the controls and prohibition of trade in dual-use goods with Russia and Belarus have been significantly expanded. 

Related goods, which normally do not require a licence, are now also addressed. According to the European Union, these include electronics, computers, telecommunications equipment, sensors and lasers, avionics and products in the space and propulsion category. Other conspicuous examples of goods that are in principle subject to an export ban are widely available top computers, data storage devices, routers and telephones. 

For Flemish dual-use goods with civil end use, Russia is traditionally in the top five destination countries outside the EU. In 2020, this amounted to 148.5 million euros out of a total licensed export of 1.1 billion euros. In that same year, Flanders exported a total of 3.47 billion euros to Russia. According to figures from Flanders Investment & Trade, this corresponds to 1.2% of total exports. Russia is the 14th most important export destination.

© BELGA